LAgraphico

LAgraphico Hosts ‘Thinking Green’ Event BURBANK, CA—LAgraphico, an imaging solutions provider to the entertainment industry, recently hosted an open house to explain its ongoing “green” initiatives and generate enthusiasm and support from its environmentally conscious clients—the likes of which include Paramount, NBC/Universal, Warner Brothers, The Walt Disney Co., Microsoft/XBOX 360, Nokia and Activision. Four separate tours of the facility were given throughout the day to accommodate the busy schedules of the Hollywood clientele. Company executives Brandon Gabriel and Dan Stillwell played tour guides and began with a brief introduction, then led each tour group to four main stations. The first station, Premedia, was manned

Prism Award Event Promotes NYU Program NEW YORK CITY—More than 400 people turned out recently for the 21st annual Prism Award luncheon, held to raise money and awareness for New York University’s graphic communications program. This year’s Prism honor went to Richard Smith, editor-in-chief and CEO of Newsweek. The Distinguished Service Award was given to Manny de Torres, chairman and CEO of Metro Packaging and Imaging. Bramkamp Printing Holds ‘Wild’ Open House Event CINCINNATI—To help celebrate its 85th anniversary and the addition of a six-color Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74 press, Bramkamp Printing put on a “Wild” open house. Held in conjunction with The Cincinnati Zoo and

Maryland Printer Gets High Honor BALTIMORE—Peake DeLancey Printers, of Cheverly, MD, received the “Grand Q” Best in Show award from the Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic (PGAMA) Print Quality Awards competition. Lallie Inc., of Millersville, MD, won the “Little q” award. Pictured, the Peake DeLancey Printers team poses here after receiving the “Grand Q” award. As part of a nationwide program with its parent company, Consolidated Graphics (CGX), AGS Custom Graphics of Macedonia, OH, has welcomed two new employees into its Management Associate Program—Desirae McBride and Maureen Rourke. McBride was recruited from the University of Akron while Rourke hails from Hope College in Michigan. Quad/Graphics announced that

"On a $1,000-per-hour web press, it's almost unimaginable how expensive it is to not match color on the press," says Michael Graff, senior executive vice president at Sandy Alexander Printing in Clifton, NJ. These days, however, plate remakes due to color issues are down to 20 percent of what they were before, Graff reports. "We've had a perceptible improvement in time of matching proofs, and our makeready time is down considerably." Repeated rounds of color proofing used to be very costly for Que-Net Media, as well, reveals Brian Gaughen, color quality manager of the Quebecor World subsidiary in Los Angeles. But, recently,

arizona PHOENIX—AIRO Graphics is now operating a six-color Komori Lithrone 40 perfector. TEMPE—A Prime UV four-lamp UV curing system has been installed as a retrofit on a five-unit Harris M-110 perfector web press to cure wet trap UV ink on commercial printing at ValleyWide Printing Services. california BURBANK—LAgraphico, a full-service premedia and printing company that serves the film industry, recently installed a new Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74 sheetfed press to produce promotional collateral to support feature films such as "Peter Pan," "Seabiscuit" and "Cheaper by the Dozen." On February 20, LAgraphico celebrated its 25th anniversary with an open house event at its new 78,000-square-foot

By Erik Cagle Senior Editor Early on it was apparent to LAgraphico that, when it came to the creative and conceptual link in the print production chain, burning the midnight oil was best left to Midnight Oil Creative. The Burbank, CA-based sheetfed printer, with roots tracing back 25 years to L.A. Filmco and A&L Graphico, was founded by Al Shapiro—who started out as a print broker—and his wife Liz. He migrated into color separation services and gradually added sheetfed presses to service the needs of the entertainment, advertising and promotional businesses. "We do a lot of work for Hollywood movie studios," states Peter Szillies,

WASHINGTON, DC—The 14th annual VUE/Point Conference, held here recently, posted almost a 10 percent year-to-year attendance increase. The event organizers also noted that there was a big jump in the percentage of first-time attendees drawn from printing firms. Though historically known for concentrating on prepress and digital technology, this year's conference marks a continuation of the effort to make it a broader graphic communications event. Apart from technical sessions on screening, proofing and CTP technology, much of the 2003 conference focused on management topics such as how printers should be differentiating themselves and avoiding the hazard of selling solely based on price. The title given the

BURBANK, CA—Print brokerage A&L GraphiCo and its sister company, prepress house L.A. Filmco, have joined forces to create a new company, LAgraphico.com. Officials say the combined operation fills an entire range of design, digital imaging, prepress and printing needs. The company has purchased a new six-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 CD printing press with in-line coating, and a new Creo Trendsetter 3244 Spectrum for digital proofing and platesetting. Al and Elizabeth Shapiro formed the A&L GraphiCo printing brokerage 23 years ago in downtown Los Angeles. A few years later, they added a second company, L.A. Filmco, to handle the prepress and large-format film output requirements